


Bigger than you expect

by Jinral



Category: Thief (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 02:52:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2796971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinral/pseuds/Jinral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One piece of loot that's almost too big to carry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bigger than you expect

**Author's Note:**

> As i have said before, i am not an expert writer, so please do not expect anything great. My writing skills are about as decent as Basso keeping his clothes clean. That's not very decent.

The crippled Burrick was lively, the sound of music and drunk men loud upstairs. Things finally seemed back to normal since the gloom had gone, and tonight was a good night to go out in the city.

Garrett climbed through the window of Basso’s basement while the man was distracted with papers on his desk. He didn’t notice the black figure slip inside and Garrett gave a slight grin as he moved over to a lit candle close to him. He pinched the wick with his fingers, putting out the small flame and quickly ducked back into a darkened part of the room. Basso lifted his head up immediately.  

“Stupid drafts putting my candles out.”

Basso stood up, grabbed a match box from a drawer on his desk, and approached the candle. “Ay, stay lit this time, dammit.” He grumbled all the way back to his desk after it was burning again and sat, looking back up at the candle before continuing to read the papers he had. Garrett took this moment to put the candle out again and retreated back to his spot.

Basso quickly looked up at the candle with an upset look. “Again?” He squinted his eyes and looked around the room. “If someone is here then come on out. You ain’t as funny as you think you are.”

Basso looked around a few more times to see if there was, in fact, someone else in the room, but no one announced their presence. “Guess it really is drafts. I suppose i can close the window for a bit. I’m not in the mood to be wasting matches all night.” He stood up and closed the window just before lighting the candle again. This time Garrett didn’t wait for him to sit down again to put the candle out. He darted out from his spot just as Basso turned around and the candle went dark.

Basso noticed immediately and spun around. “Alright! Who’s messing with me?” He grabbed the candlestick and held it up, ready to hit anyone with it if he found them. There had to be someone here messing with him, but he couldn’t see anyone around.

Basso shook his head in frustration. “Oy, fine whatever.” He turned around, not bothering to light the candle again. Once he started walking back to his desk Garrett followed behind silently. Basso didn’t even look up until after he sat down and the black figure in front of him caught him off guard, sending him falling back in his chair, shouting in surprise.  

“Damnit! Garrett? I knew someone was messing with me!”

The thief smirked at his accomplishment. “Gotta keep on your toes, Basso.”

“Keep on my toes. Hmfph! More like give me a friggin heart attack!” Basso picked himself up off the ground. “One of these days i really am gonna have one. ”

Garrett gave Basso a dubious glance.   
  


“Alright. I’ll just assume you are here for a job then.” Basso kicked the chair away and pulled open a drawer. Inside were a few letters and pieces of parchment. He grabbed a few and handed them to the thief. “There may not be anything you are interested in there, just a heads up.”  
  
Garrett took them and started skimming over the text, looking for anything that might catch his interest, but finding nothing challenging to him. He handed them back to Basso and noticed another note sitting on his desk, a sketch laying by it. Basso caught his glance.

“I haven’t checked that one yet. It’s about stealing some kind of tortoise or somethin’.”

Garrett raised an eyebrow, but continued to reach for the note to read over it. The job, indeed, was to steal a tortoise.

“I haven’t been to Auldale in a while.”

“You sure you want to take that? It could be a trap.”

Garrett stuffed the letter in a packet and gave Basso a nod as he climbed out the window. Basso shouted at him from inside his basement loud enough for him to hear, but not enough for anyone else to overhear. “Fine, i don’t need to tell you to be careful, but please don’t get yourself killed.”

Garrett departed from the Crippled Burrick and quickly made for the thieves’ highway, making sure to not be spotted by any guards along the way. The trip to Auldale was going to be a good distance, but at least he didn’t have to travel to the part across the bridge.

-000-

Garrett stood outside a large estate with a tall black fence surrounding it. Two guards stood outside the front door of the residence and another group of two other guards patrolled the perimeter. There was no telling how many more were inside, and perhaps even with dogs. He would have to be careful and move quietly.

It’s a good thing turtles are quiet. If this was anything else i wouldn’t have taken it.

Making a few laps around the fence to look for any easy way in and out, he found a large dead tree to be his only way of getting over it. He climbed up the trunk and tested the strength of the large branch and found it sturdy enough for him to walk along to the other side of the fence. He leapt down to the ground and sprinted for the nearest shadow of the home. Now that he was in, he just needed to find the tortoise, stuff his pockets with anything extra for himself, and get back over the fence. A rope arrow would be needed for that, but not yet. Not use alerting any guards that he was there with a dangling warning sign left by an intruder.

Once the two man patrol passed him by, he crept out of the shadow and looked for a door he could get in through. He passed a few locked windows and peeked inside to spot any guards on the inside. There only seemed to be one on the bottom floor and there weren’t any dogs. That made things easier.

Garrett traveled further along until he finally found a door. He grabbed for the handle to test if it was locked and surprisingly found it unlocked. He looked closer and found the door handle rigged with a trap.

I wonder how many guards weren’t warned about this door and fell victim to this. Either way, thanks for leaving me an invitation to come inside.

A bush near the door revealed the location of the trap’s rig and he cut the wire holding it together. The footsteps of the guards could be heard once again and Garrett quickly opened the door and slipped inside, closing the door as gently as he could. He hid behind a curtain hanging by a window and listened for the footsteps of the guards to pass the door, unknowing of his intrusion.

The footsteps passed and Garrett stepped out from behind the curtains and discovered he had entered a hallway. He reached into his pocket and produced a map that was on the back of the drawing of the tortoise. The room he needed to get to was on the bottom floor, but on the other side of the house. Writing revealed there to be a door at the end of the hallway he was currently in. From there he would just need to cross one small room and enter one large area described as ‘play pen.’

What could a small tortoise need such a large room for?

He folded the paper up and put it back in his pocket and crept to the door that was sketched onto his map and opened it quietly. No guard was to be seen in the room, but a large unlit fireplace accompanied by a few pieces of furniture gave him the idea that this had to be the living room area. That meant there might be some loot sitting around for him. He looked on any tables and nightstands, looking for anything that might sell for a good price. Oddly enough, the room had nothing of value and Garrett decided to move on. He needed to locate the tortoise before going upstairs to find anything else to steal.

The door to the room Garrett needed to get to slightly creaked as he opened it and inside the room caught him by surprise. The floor was nothing but soil, and vegetation filled half of the room.

“How am I supposed to find a tortoise in all this?”

Footsteps on the opposite side of the room caught his ear and he crouched to the ground, low enough so the tall leaves of the bush next to him hid his figure from anyone who might see him.

“My dear Myrtle, you are growing so fast! How many years has it been since I have gotten you as a tiny little thing? 7 years? But oh, how big you’ve grown. In a few more years I might not be able to pick you up!”

Garrett made a confused expression and peeked out from the bush and saw a man in a nightgown looking downwards, Unease setting in his mind.

“My sweet pet, I must leave you now. It is night and I have a long day tomorrow. I’ll be sure to tell the servants to let you spend the day outside.”

The man stood up and left the room, leaving Garrett alone in the room with the tortoise. He snuck over to the area the man had crouched down at while talking. Garrett’s foot nearly slipped from under him and he scrambled to catch his balance. Much to his surprise, mud covered the ground and seemed to get more deep closer to the plant. This was bad, his exit with or without the tortoise was going to leave muddy footprints. He would have to think of something to avoid that at all costs.

He turned his gaze to some large leaves growing in the direction he needed to go and carefully trekked through the mud. Mud was halfway up his legs by the time he reached a series of stepping stones. An inch of water surrounded the stones, but there was one close enough to the plant that he could reach over and break a couple off to wrap around his feet once he found the tortoise. He jumped over to the stone and landed as best he could without slipping and falling into the water and making his situation worse for him than it already was. Balance regained; he stepped out to the next stone and carefully stood on the last stone near the plant. It shook loosely under his footing and he moved carefully and reached out to the branch.

Just a little further…

He was stretched as far as he could, barely keeping balance as he broke four leaves off the plant when the rock under him lifted up, throwing him off, and into the almost knee deep mud and water. Garrett scrambled to his feet and looked back at the stone in surprise. A long moving stick poked out from it, and it was walking away from him. He looked closer and realized that what he had been standing on was the tortoise he was supposed to steal. She was much larger than he had originally thought and for a moment he wondered if he would even be able to carry her out with him. He struggled forward through the deep mud and reached down to the tortoise to test its weight and found it just light enough that he could still carry it with him over the fence, but how would he manage carrying such a large, awkward, and moving object?

He looked around the room and spotted tapestry big enough he could wrap around the creature and carry it out like a heavy sack of loot. Wading through the mud and water to get to it, he pulled on the fabric and soon it gave way, leaving him ready to wrap the tortoise and leave, but first, quietly as he could, he shredded two large enough pieces of cloth to wrap around his feet.

This should last better than the leaves at least.

Garrett placed the pieces inside his hood to keep them from getting dirty and turned back towards the tortoise. She had moved further into the muddy water and Garrett rubbed his head in frustration.

At least I can’t get any unclean than this.

Heading back through the mud, he finally lifted the tortoise out of the mud and held her up barely long enough to wrap her in the tapestry. She sat comfortably inside and he carefully hung the makeshift sack over his shoulder and exited the pit of mud and water. He was going to have a hard time explaining his current state to Basso later.

Standing over try dirt, he placed the tortoise on the ground and removed the shreds of tapestry from his hood and proceeded to wrap them around his feet. The guards wouldn't notice all the disturbed mud anytime soon, but muddy foot prints won’t be so easy to miss. Once his feet were wrapped he picked up the tortoise and carried her gently over his shoulder out of the room.

Garrett’s arms were growing tired fast as he crossed the hall and he had to take a moment to rest before leaving. Waiting for the two man patrol to pass by again would give him enough resting time, and also give him time to think of how he was going to get his heavier than usual prize over the fence with him. There was also hoping the unsure feeling that the arrow wouldn’t be strong enough to support both him and cause and unwelcomed fall, but he wouldn’t be able to sneak through the front gate with the two guards standing out front. He would just have to try climbing.

He stood himself up and removed his cloak from his back and laid it on the ground. He lifted the tapestry off from over the tortoise's head and checked the make sure she okay. She stretched her head out of her shell and gazed at him.

“So, your name is Myrtle huh? Please don’t cause me any trouble and this will all be over soon.”

He replaced the fabric over her head and picked her up, laying her in his lap as he tied his cloak around both of them. Flexibly moving his arms, he managed to tighten her down enough that she wouldn’t slide around too much and he stood, barely cradling her in one arm as he listened for the guards to pass. It didn’t take long for their footsteps to be heard, and once gone, he creaked open the door and pulled his bow from over his shoulder and readied a rope arrow, then pointed it towards the tree branch. Aiming close enough to the fence, he released the arrow and it clamped shut around the branch, making the rope unfurl from the impact. He kneeled down and untied the shredded tapestry from his feet and tossed them into the bushes before running to mount the rope. He used the metal bars of the fence to help him walk up to the branch. Several times his feet threatened to slip from the mud that covered them, but he managed to reach the branch and hoisted himself to the other side of the fence, being careful to make sure Myrtle didn't slip from out of his cloak.

He reached the end of the branch and dismounted the tree and dashed for the nearest shadow so he could rest without being spotted. All he had left to do now was get back to Basso’s.

Feeling rested enough, Garrett cradled Myrtle in his arms and began his long trip back to the Crippled Burrick.

-000-

Garrett crouched by Basso’s basement window, listening in for his presence. His plan was just to sneak in unnoticed and leave the tortoise in the room and claim the reward later when he was no longer covered in mud. Basso made a loud cough, announcing his presence to still be in the room. Garrett gave a slight disappointed sigh, but peeked inside to see if the man was facing the window. he leaned his head in, just barely enough he could see.

Basso was sitting at the foot of his bed eating a bowl of food and reading a piece of paper in his lap, seeming fairly invested in what it said. Garrett took his distraction as a chance to slip in and out unseen and quickly unwrapped Myrtle from all the cloth and lifted her up into his arms once again. He landed silently on the floor of Basso’s basement and quickly placed the tortoise on the ground and turned to leave back through the window, but was stopped by Basso making questioning cough.

“So what, you just gonna leave without saying anything? Wait, what the hell are you covered in?”

Basso cocked an eyebrow at Garrett for a second and burst into laughter, making Garrett feel even more embarrassed.  “So, you gonna tell me what happened? Or am I gonna have to guess? I hope you didn’t take a bath in the sewers somewhere.”

Garrett gave the giggling man an irritated glare and took a step closer to the window before being stopped again.

“Wait a second, I need the letter and sketch of this thing to make sure it is what the client wanted. You still got it?”

Garrett felt around in his pockets for the paper and pulled out soggy wet parchment and handed it to him. Basso choked back more laughter as he grabbed what was left of the paper. he couldn’t make out the sketch of the tortoise through all the mud and smeared ink, but judging by the size of the one Garrett placed on the ground, he assumed that he got the one that the client wanted.

The tortoise poked her head out of her shell now and was giving them both long stares.

“Well it looks like it made it here safely. Anything else to say before you go and uh, clean all that mess off yourself?”

Garrett crouched down in front of the turtle and held out a hand to pet her head.

“Myrtle. Myrtle the turtle.”

Basso raised and eyebrow in confusion. “Myrtle? It’s a female? And since when do you make rhymes?”

Garrett sneered. “I don’t know if she really is a she. That’s just what her owner referred to her as.”

He felt the exhaustion in his legs as he lifted himself up again. He still needed to climb up the clock tower and bathe before he could rest, and staying any longer was making him more tired. Basso focused his attention on the tortoise, and while he was distracted, Garrett snuck back out through the window. He had made it half way up the clock tower when the empty presence on his back made him realize he had forgotten his cloak inside Basso’s basement, but he wasn’t going to go back to get it tonight. He felt ready to collapse as soon as he climbed in through his window.

**  
**His clothes stuck to him uncomfortably as he made his way down the stairs and to his wash bowl. Dry mud cracked off as he untied his harness and lifted it over his head. Cleaning his gear was going to take some time, but he would worry about that in the morning. For now he just wanted to wash himself and fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to TimeSquid and my friend minon for helping out with editing! And another thanks to TimeSquid for naming the tortoise and coming up with the little rhyme!


End file.
